Hey, all! I'm recruiting for my on-going "Bay Area By Night" Troupe. This is a Troupe that I've been Storytelling with for nearly a decade. Currently, I'm looking for 4 new players. Let me explain the basic premise of the project. Bay Area By Night is an anthological, pseudo-sandbox that I created for my World of Darkness Troupe. As most of us live in the San Francisco Bay Area, I wanted to cement a personal setting in which our Chronicles could exist in proximity to one another. Ideally, most Chronicles draw upon the same pools of NPCs and share the same metaplots, even if they don't directly crossover. Our Current Chronicle is "Werewolf: The Extinction", a dedicated exploration of the ecological and social injustices of the region, particularly those faced by Indigenous peoples. Like it's predecessor Chronicle, "Vampire: The Jyhad", Extinction explores the necropolitics of not only the humans in the area, but the broken (though not destroyed) Garou Nation. The next Chronicle on the docket is "Mage: The Great Work", which is being developed at a snail's pace. Some things are just endemic. Haha. Our group meets over Discord every Sunday at 6:30 PM PST. The ideal new player is someone who has at least a passing familiarity with World of Darkness. However, I'll also accept complete newbies! The most important thing is that you can make that Sunday evening timeslot *most* of the time. You don't need to be a local to the area, as we have some players from all over the US and beyond. If you're interested, feel free to message me at my Discord: exsanguinator Here are a few critical details about the project and our Troupe culture. Bay Area By Night is radically affirming and diverse: We have members of many different faiths, backgrounds, gender identities, and orientations. To make a special note of this, I feel it's an important to state outright we're not only Trans inclusive, but Trans-affirming as well. Almost all of our players are Queer or Trans, so if that's a problem for you, look elsewhere. Bay Area By Night Is A Horror Troupe: Our setting is one that embraces the neo-noir horror aesthetics and gnostic spirituality of classical World of Darkness. We do not shy away from the more terrifying and socially taboo aspects of the various denizens of the World of Darkness. Bay Area By Night Is A Punk Troupe: Despite our World of Darkness being full of monsters (only some of whom are Supernatural), it's my personal stance that the stories of good WoD characters is one of survival (at worst) and resistance (at best). This is to say, our world is this dark so that you can resist it. Likewise, you should expect that our Troupe tends to drop links and flyers for local direct action and community-oriented programs. What's the point in fictional punk if it doesn't encourage you to act? Bay Area By Night Takes Consent Seriously: As a rule of thumb, I require that all new players fill out Consent Forms to highlight what kinds of content they are comfortable with and uncomfortable with. Sometimes, some explicit consent will be unavoidable, depending on the game being played. Blood and gore can't be avoided in Vampire and horrors of genocide can't be avoided in Werewolf. As I say, this is a horror group and so it's absolutely vital that we're as thorough as we can be around content. That said, I've taken steps to implement the Stoplight System and a no-questions asked 'Blackout" policy. Bay Area By Night Is Metaplot Adjacent: World of Darkness fans are...particular about metaplot - myself included. I take the stance that everything that's happened from 1st Edition all the way up to 5th Edition has, indeed, happened unless explicitly stated otherwise. Albrecht is king, the Gehenna Crusade has happened, the Second Inquisition exists, etc. Bay Area By Night Is Metaplot Revisionist : Aside from inconsistencies that are mended, Bay Area By Night also revises some aspects of World of Darkness that are...poorly aged. For example, the "Kuei Jin" are revised to be at once more culturally agnostic and respectful to their roots as Preta-inspired demons. In collaboration with Asian players, I've been able to revise them as "Hungry Dead" without actually removing any of their established lore (merely rebranding poorly written parts of it). Likewise metis are not called Metis. They're Moonborn, to eliminate any (erroneous) confusion with the Métis Peoples of Canada. You can bet that Younger Brother and Older Brother have their updated W5 Tribal names and Totems over their previous labels. It's my stance that oWoD was never regressive or even particularly offensive, but it certainly did need a lot of cultural oversight that simply didn't happen. However, what you won't find in my games is a complete rewriting of critical social critiques. Kinfolk still exists and their political plight is still emblematic of gendered oppression. Moonborn still exists and their plight is emblematic of ableism. In my view, nothing is gained by ignoring these poorly handed aspects of World of Darkness. Reframing them and handling them with care, however, becomes paramount. Bay Area By Night Is Metaplot Experimental: In addition to the 1st-5th Edition Metaplot we're all used to, I've always taken the liberty of adding compatible elements of lore and plot from New World of Darkness and Chronicles of Darkness. We'll always prioritize oWoD, but at least as far as this storyteller is concerned, coexistence with nWoD and CofD is not only possible but ideal. An example would be the blending of Werewolf: The Forsaken and Werewolf:?The Apocalypse, in which I've written Father Wolf into Apocalypse's mythical framework as the extant (but missing) Animal Father of the Garou. Likewise, you can expect that cross-franchise splats that are parallel to one another (i.e. Giest and Wraith) exist in separate but connected capacities. Other splats are simply cannibalized and subsumed, such as the case with Requiem being completely absorbed into Masquerade. Bay Area By Night Is A Persistent World: Thanks to the magic of Immersive Calendar on Foundry, I've been able to create a world with consistent temporality. Although two Chronicles might take place in different cities in the Bay Area, they're both still "canon" to one another. Likewise, because our games take place in one large, interconnected metropolitan area, political struggles for territory matter significantly more. If Oakland is largely Anarch territory with a small population of Garou, the Player Characters choice to invade that Domain as Camarilla vampires feels much more impactful.